Trump previously argued that he "brilliantly used" US tax law "to pay no more tax than I am legally required."

Trump's campaign previously neither confirmed nor denied the accuracy of The Times report on his taxes, which came after a reporter was mailed three pages of Trump's 1995 tax returns.

Instead, a campaign statement accused The Times of "illegally" publishing the returns and praised Trump for using the tax code to his advantage, a line that Trump's surrogates repeated. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and others insisted that Trump was a "genius" for taking advantage of the tax codes.